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Post by Big Blue on May 26, 2021 8:39:23 GMT
Whatever video call platform your workplace and clientele use is anyone else finding that the more WFH goes on the more every meeting becomes like a comedy skit? I have to bite my tongue at least twice a meeting.
Today a woman’s audio feed kept vanishing so she left and rejoined. My immediate response was “you’re too bloody loud now!” Fortunately I was on mute.
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Post by Grampa on May 26, 2021 8:57:34 GMT
'WFH'?
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Post by Blarno on May 26, 2021 10:23:39 GMT
Every time I load up Teams, a little piece of me dies.
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Post by bryan on May 26, 2021 10:53:36 GMT
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Post by Grampa on May 26, 2021 10:58:14 GMT
Ah - I've only been working from home for 19 years  I don't need to do Teams Meetings for work, but I'm a trainer for a charity and I've done a load training sessions over the last few months and bloody hell it's hard work compared to doing it with everyone in the room! Fortunately the planned schedule is now at an end and we should soon be back to face to face. |
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Post by Tim on May 26, 2021 12:45:28 GMT
Just off a meeting that started at 9:30 (so 4 fucking hours!)
I use my phone for them so, with headphones plugged in, after a while I have to keep checking the battery level.
Additionally people appear to be unable to check my diary before phoning me (often through Teams, arseholes) which is irritating.
Looking at shared spreadsheets on a phone screen is amusingly pointless too.
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Post by Martin on May 26, 2021 13:03:22 GMT
Just off a meeting that started at 9:30 (so 4 fucking hours!) I use my phone for them so, with headphones plugged in, after a while I have to keep checking the battery level. Additionally people appear to be unable to check my diary before phoning me (often through Teams, arseholes) which is irritating. Looking at shared spreadsheets on a phone screen is amusingly pointless too. I couldn't use my phone for Teams calls, why not use your computer? It feels like I spend half my life on Teams, even though I'm out at sites a couple of days a week as a minimum. It's better when I'm at home as I use my Mac, so a 27" screen rather than a much smaller laptop. I get people trying to call via Teams when I'm in meetings as well plus no consideration over my diary when putting meetings in. People just assume you're sitting there waiting for something to do.... We're back to slightly larger face to face meetings now and I'm interviewing for a couple of senior roles at the moment so can do them the traditional way as well which is great. |
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Post by Blarno on May 26, 2021 13:22:38 GMT
I keep getting added to teams and have stuff shoved in my diary. The diary that I don't use and have no intention of using because if I'm at work, then I'm available. I don't spend my life at my computer - only to read emails or pop on here occasionally. I'd rather nip up to the office and speak to a human directly than use the Teams messenger.
I also flatly refuse to have Teams on my home computer.
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Post by Roadrunner on May 26, 2021 13:29:12 GMT
We tend to use Zoom most of the time and it just seems a normal part of daily life. I always use two screens so I can have faces on one and presentation/notes/agenda etc on the other. I couldn't function with just a phone.
Everyone is now far more relaxed on Zoom than they used to be and meetings are back to being about the meeting, rather than Zoom or how to share a screen or some such.
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Post by Martin on May 26, 2021 13:31:40 GMT
I keep getting added to teams and have stuff shoved in my diary. The diary that I don't use and have no intention of using because if I'm at work, then I'm available. I don't spend my life at my computer - only to read emails or pop on here occasionally. I'd rather nip up to the office and speak to a human directly than use the Teams messenger. I also flatly refuse to have Teams on my home computer. If you and all your colleagues are based in one location, there is no need for Teams. There isn't anything wrong with using tools to manage your time properly though. I'm thinking more about other peoples impact on your time which will happen if you're always available, rather than how you plan your day/manage your own output. |
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Post by Tim on May 26, 2021 13:55:05 GMT
Just off a meeting that started at 9:30 (so 4 fucking hours!) I use my phone for them so, with headphones plugged in, after a while I have to keep checking the battery level. Additionally people appear to be unable to check my diary before phoning me (often through Teams, arseholes) which is irritating. Looking at shared spreadsheets on a phone screen is amusingly pointless too. I couldn't use my phone for Teams calls, why not use your computer? It feels like I spend half my life on Teams, even though I'm out at sites a couple of days a week as a minimum. It's better when I'm at home as I use my Mac, so a 27" screen rather than a much smaller laptop. I get people trying to call via Teams when I'm in meetings as well plus no consideration over my diary when putting meetings in. People just assume you're sitting there waiting for something to do.... We're back to slightly larger face to face meetings now and I'm interviewing for a couple of senior roles at the moment so can do them the traditional way as well which is great. I get by ok with just the phone plus I just tell everyone to email me the documents beforehand so I can look at them on the PC (27" screen here too) uninterrupted by peoples faces in the corner. Additionally it means that rather than losing the screen share I can have people's faces on the phone while looking at a document at the same time - it's interesting to see what folk are doing when they think you can't see them due to some crappy shared document! For some reason I feel like getting a webcam would be too intrusive but I'm ok with the phone..... |
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Post by Big Blue on May 26, 2021 14:31:47 GMT
Diary management: hmmm.
My work diary currently lives in my email account for the partnership. I also have accounts for the Project I work on set up by the client PMO and with the client organisation which are both Teams access only (for file management) but some project members use the project account as their main Outlook / Teams account and some use the Client one. None of these accounts can see each others' diaries, obviously. So no one ever knows who is available at what time on what day except for internal partnership meetings which always occur at either the beginning of the day or the end of the day to avoid taking up billing hours.
Teams is a blessing and a curse: we have meetings with participants from France, Italy, Spain and Germany and it's a jolly sight more efficient having them on Teams than hanging around airports and/or TGV stations. However everyone wants to have teams meetings on a minute by minute basis!
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Post by Ben on May 26, 2021 14:37:16 GMT
Thankfully I have very few work meetings and a lot of stuff can be dealt with through email/text. Most of my video conferences are related to car launches and the likes (where pre-Covid we would have been present on site).
I'm more annoyed by the fact that there are a myriad of platforms that I'm asked to use for different events/meetings. So far there's been Zoom, Google Teams, whatever Microsoft's using, and Cisco Webex (ugh I hate that one the most), meaning I have to have all sorts of software on the computer.
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Post by Big Blue on May 26, 2021 14:43:56 GMT
Thankfully I have very few work meetings and a lot of stuff can be dealt with through email/text. Most of my video conferences are related to car launches and the likes (where pre-Covid we would have been present on site). I'm more annoyed by the fact that there are a myriad of platforms that I'm asked to use for different events/meetings. So far there's been Zoom, Google Teams, whatever Microsoft's using, and Cisco Webex (ugh I hate that one the most), meaning I have to have all sorts of software on the computer. Teams is MS; Google Meet, then there's Zoom, FaceTime, BlueJeans and I bet there's some saddos still using a Blackberry variant somewhere in a call between the Pentagon and GCHQ |
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Post by alf on May 26, 2021 15:51:30 GMT
Don't mention it, I've just come off a 1-4pm Teams call!
The multiple platforms things is a PITA. We started using Zoom a bit until IT told us to stop due to the (now fixed, I think) security issues so we use Teams.
The number of external people that say "we can't do Teams calls" drives me nuts... Yes its from Microsoft, the same people that make the OS and office suite you are using, plus there is a web version, how can you "not work out how to do it"?
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Post by Martin on May 26, 2021 15:55:20 GMT
I’ve been on Teams for 6.5 hours today, that’s not far off a fairly standard day.
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Post by Ben on May 26, 2021 17:37:19 GMT
Thankfully I have very few work meetings and a lot of stuff can be dealt with through email/text. Most of my video conferences are related to car launches and the likes (where pre-Covid we would have been present on site). I'm more annoyed by the fact that there are a myriad of platforms that I'm asked to use for different events/meetings. So far there's been Zoom, Google Teams, whatever Microsoft's using, and Cisco Webex (ugh I hate that one the most), meaning I have to have all sorts of software on the computer. Teams is MS; Google Meet, then there's Zoom, FaceTime, BlueJeans and I bet there's some saddos still using a Blackberry variant somewhere in a call between the Pentagon and GCHQ Shows how much I pay attention. They're all the bloody same to me! |
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2021 18:16:14 GMT
I agree with you Ben, in a opposite of the Lotus mindset of 'just add lightness', they add complication after complication for what seems like no reason. Hey ho, I am probably and officially, an old git.
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Post by ChrisM on May 26, 2021 19:02:54 GMT
We use Teams at work, there are still a number of staff WFH and if everyone went in, there would not be enough desks to go round.
We also have a lot of company documents on "cloud" servers..... all well and good until the internet connection falls over, which it did today for the second time in 2 weeks resulting in many of us who live locally going home to use our own connections so that we could continue working via VPN. Good job I now live local to my job !
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Post by Alex on May 26, 2021 20:22:19 GMT
I'm mostly used to Teams now but it amazes me that after over a year of having to use it instead of face to face so many people still forget to turn off mute when its their time to speak and you just see a silent video of them chatting away to themselves.
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Post by Martin on May 26, 2021 20:31:14 GMT
I'm mostly used to Teams now but it amazes me that after over a year of having to use it instead of face to face so many people still forget to turn off mute when its their time to speak and you just see a silent video of them chatting away to themselves. That happens so often! |
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on May 27, 2021 5:21:52 GMT
“You’re on mute!” Is the phrase of the times.
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Post by Tim on May 27, 2021 7:58:04 GMT
One of our management team is a constant punster but he's also the guy who forgets to unmute himself.
We quickly realised it was best to leave him be for a while before telling him.
The worst are those who haven't discovered the mute button yet, they're the ones who somehow make a constant background noise.
There seems to be a reluctance from others to mute these cretins.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2021 12:18:44 GMT
Cummins needs to have his unmute ability fried.
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Post by bryan on May 27, 2021 20:26:31 GMT
I’ve been on Teams for 6.5 hours today, that’s not far off a fairly standard day. That would be an average to light day for me.....do get lots done....I went into London this week for the first time in a year....was nice but felt less productive time wise |
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Post by Big Blue on May 28, 2021 9:32:08 GMT
On a call earlier. I am absolutely certain that someone not on mute ripped out a huge fart. There was a short silence afterwards so I think I wasn’t the only one that heard it.
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Post by Tim on May 28, 2021 10:22:15 GMT
Excellent  If I'm in an important meeting I wear a proper shirt (if I wear a jersey the shirt isn't ironed though) but it was pointed out to me that the microphone part of the lead on my headphones (iPhone ones) rubs on the collar and makes a strange noise if I'm not on mute. It seems like a good way to irritate colleagues to me..... |
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Post by Stuntman on Jun 2, 2021 21:06:35 GMT
I've been back in my office for 10 months now, but most of my meetings are on Teams. Several times a day, with people either at home, in the office, in various other of our sites in the UK, and with third parties in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, The Philippines, and Bermuda.
It works as well as can be expected, and obviously it's a lot easier and more productive for those meetings with third parties.
But - I also get irritated by people randomly calling me on Teams with absolutely no prior notice when I'm deep in the middle of something else. I ignore those calls most of the time.
Urgent for them is NOT urgent for me, and I'm the head of the damn department whose help these people want when they've tried do do something themselves and failed miserably.
Moan moan whinge.
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Post by PG on Jun 3, 2021 11:09:40 GMT
Don't mention it, I've just come off a 1-4pm Teams call! The multiple platforms things is a PITA. We started using Zoom a bit until IT told us to stop due to the (now fixed, I think) security issues so we use Teams. The number of external people that say "we can't do Teams calls" drives me nuts... Yes its from Microsoft, the same people that make the OS and office suite you are using, plus there is a web version, how can you "not work out how to do it"? Ah, the joy of long video calls. Having worked for 20 years for a multi-national before I retired, long video calls (and tele-conferences before video became a thing) were just part of the day. The only time you could get the West Coast USA, Sydney and UK on a call was 9pm UK time. Now I just use the tools for friends and the few meetings I attend. |
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Post by PetrolEd on Jun 3, 2021 11:47:39 GMT
I've been back in my office for 10 months now, but most of my meetings are on Teams. Several times a day, with people either at home, in the office, in various other of our sites in the UK, and with third parties in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, The Philippines, and Bermuda. It works as well as can be expected, and obviously it's a lot easier and more productive for those meetings with third parties. But - I also get irritated by people randomly calling me on Teams with absolutely no prior notice when I'm deep in the middle of something else. I ignore those calls most of the time. Urgent for them is NOT urgent for me, and I'm the head of the damn department whose help these people want when they've tried do do something themselves and failed miserably. Moan moan whinge. No way would I want to be on a teams call with some dude in Bermuda. That person would be told to turn their camera off immediately or adapt one of those wet days in Manchester backgrounds so I didn't feel so jealous. |
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